Historic Map Works

Based in Portland Maine, Historic Map Works, LLC is an Internet company formed to create a historic digital map database of North America and the world. Drawing on the largest physical collection of American property atlases of its type, it is our aim to be the single best online destination for map enthusiasts and researchers alike.

In addition to our own atlas collection, we incorporated our scans of the antiquarian world map collection from the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education located at the University of Southern Maine. Combining these collections allows site visitors a vast amount of information spanning several centuries of cartographic information.

Historic Map Works's map collection includes:

• United States Property Atlases
• Antiquarian Maps
• Nautical Charts
• Birdseye Views
• Special Collections (Celestial Maps, Portraits, and other historical images)
• Directories and other text documents

The vast majority of our database was created by scanning an original map at a high resolution by our team of highly skilled image technicians. After scanning, this team processes out the major imperfections while maintaining the look of an antiquarian map.
Click here for a video demonstration.

Maps are then uploaded and cataloged for viewing on our website. Our technicians geocode each map to a modern map to enable the search by address function. Linking the historic images in our database with geocode data allows visitors to search by modern day address or latitude and longitude coordinates. Other methods to view our maps include browsing by geographic location as well as searching our maps via keywords, town names, makers names, or simply by year.

Prints and giftware are offered for the vast majority of images on our site. A Giclee printing process is used to create the images ordered from our site ensuring an archival print that will remain vibrant for years to come.

Historic Map Works has two websites which host our maps. The first is www.historicmapworks.com which is aimed at individual subscribers and the second is Historic Map Works Library Edition which is distributed by ProQuest to public libraries and universities.

Our map collection numbers over 1,574,915 individual images (click here for detailed statistics of maps available online) for you to explore. Track your ancestors to their homes; see the roads they traveled on, and the names of the neighbors they talked with. Multiple layers allow you to see an area change through time, and our Geocode feature allows you to compare historical and modern maps.